etruck.com.au

The Victorian Government are wanting to get good publicity out of the fact work is starting on dualling the Western Highway from Ballarat to Stawell but manage to put the trucking industry offside and create problems for themselves in Melbourne at the same time. Are they spinning themselves into trouble?

By using some statistics about road accidents and emphasising a high proportion of trucks being involved in the figures, VicRoads are implying trucks cause major accidents and are killing lots of members of the general public. Yes, trucks appear in the figures at a high rate, they do a lot more kilometres than cars! It has been shown the car driver is at fault in the majority of accidents involving trucks, so why not target them?

In this simple video VicRoads could have made positive statements and tried to keep all stakeholders on side, but no, they had to go for the cheap populist shot at the perennial bad guys, killer truckies. Do they not understand they are shooting themselves in the foot? If they want to create truck corridors for freight movements in Melbourne they need to convince the car driving public, trucks are driven by responsible adults not deadly vermin. Come on Victoria, get with the program!